[Comparative study of cellular and humoral immunity as well as of resistance to the rabies virus in rabies vaccination].

Experiments in CBA and BALB/c mice showed that after vaccination against rabies alongside with humoral immune response there developed a clone of cells sensitized to rabies antigen which, upon a secondary exposure to it, responded by increased blast formation. The immunological memory to the rabies antigen was found to be specific and to persist for up to 100 days (the observation period). Immunization of mice with rabies vaccine using various schedules and in combination with interferon inducers revealed no correlation between the lymphocyte blastogenesis parameters and virus-neutralizing antibody levels or the intensity of immunity to street rabies virus. The lymphocyte blasttransformation test with nonspecific mitogens may also be used for evaluation of the toxicity of new preparations.